My Beautiful Soldier
by SimplyAnonymous182
Summary: Thalia Grace decided to join the army when a new war is coming. There, she meets general Nico di Angelo. They both have a war to prepare for, but they find eachother always by their side. So let's just say that love and war do go together.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan, genius.  
**

Intro

Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. She excelled with the bow and arrow, but she was equally as good with the sword as well. She lived with her mother and step sister, Carra (both mortals). Her step sister was the daughter of her step father, now dead from illness. Her mother treated Carra more like a daughter than Thalia. Thalia was never jealous. Her mother was horrendous. Thalia also had a brother, Jason. Jason was Roman while Thalia was Greek. He was the son of Jupiter. As soon as he was born, he was carted off to Rome. He became praetor. He was the best swordsman in all of Rome.

The Greeks and Romans were allies. When they finally noticed that they would be a very strong force together, they stopped attacking and hating each other. It helped that the Greek and Roman military leaders were very close friends. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Frank Zhang, son of Mars, and Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. No woman was allowed in the military.

The four military leaders of Greece and Rome were longed for by all of the girls their age. They were all taken. All except for Nico. Percy was married to Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, Jason was married to Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, and Frank was married to Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. Nico turned down every girl that offered to be with him. And that was a lot of girls. Like, a lot. So much that he probably lost count.

So where was Thalia Grace? No one knew she existed except for Jason, her mother, and her step sister. No one but her mother and her step sister knew that she was a daughter of Zeus. Her mother told Jason that Thalia was mortal.

Thalia knew that she was a daughter of Zeus ever since she was seven. Ten years ago, she got so angry at her mother that she accidentally burned down the house with lightning. Her mother was bitter to her long before that, and Thalia got fed up with it. When they got to the new house, her mother 'accidentally' pushed her off the roof of the two story house. Before she could land, she moved the wind around her to essentially make her fly. She didn't how, but she just did it. She's always practiced flying and using the lightning. And no, she didn't start any fires with her lightning. But Thalia always wanted to join the military. More than that, she wanted to get away from her mother and step sister. So this is where she is. Thalia Grace is about to run away from home.

Thalia

I double checked my pack. I had a few clothes, my bow and quiver full of arrows, and a dagger. I put on my bracelet that turned into my sword, Aegis, that my father had given me. **(Yes I know that it's Aegis her shield, but I wanted her to have a cool sword, so yeah.) **That was honestly all of my stuff. I climbed out of the window and left. My mother and Carra were out shopping. They left me with a big list of chores to do while they were gone for the day. That's right. The day. They took that long to go shopping. I didn't do any of the chores. Why would I? They should do it themselves. They always mistreated me. So now I was leaving. I strapped a different dagger than earlier to my belt. It's always good to be armed. Especially when I'm this a huge magnet for monsters. That and random people who dared cross paths with me.

The war was coming. This was the opportune time to enlist. I made my way to the capital. I made my way to the nearest line of enlistment. Men gave me a confused look as I stepped into line. A few made a few snide comments, but as soon as I gave them a glare, they stopped.

As I walked up to the man who were enlisting people, he dropped his pen and laughed.

"Is this some sort of joke?" he asked her. I glared at him.

"I wish to enlist into the army." He laughed some more.

"You will not be enlisting into any army today young lady." I pulled out my dagger and pressed it against his neck.

"You sure about that?" I said glaring at him. He shakily picked up his pen.

"Name?" he said shakily.

"Thalia Grace."

"Age?"

"Seventeen." He wrote everything down and gave it to the others. They registered me and gave me a slip to tell me where I'll be staying.

I had been in the soldiers dorm place for about a week now. They had given her a separate room because she was a girl. Training began today, and she couldn't wait.

Nico

The Greeks and Romans practiced separately because they were at different places obviously. Percy and I would be training the new recruits today. I was only interested because of the fact that the girl, Thalia Grace I think her name was, would be one of he new recruits. She had pitch black hair and electric blue eyes. The only eyes I'd ever seen that blue was Jason's, but even his weren't as blue as hers. I was a little worried that she would get hurt. She looked really tough and everything, but she's the first girl ever to be enlisted. I saw her pull a dagger on the guy who was enlisting people. I laughed a little when she did, but I was mostly impressed by how confident and strong she seemed. No one would really take her seriously. She was going to get hurt, but she signed up anyways. This was going to be hard.

But why did I care? Maybe it was because she was different from everyone. The girls that my friends were married to were tough, but they kind of just accepted that they weren't allowed in the army. This girl was different. Plus, all of the other girls were all girly and weak. She was strong and tough.

"You ready to train the new recruits?" Percy asked me, snapping myself out of my thoughts. He had on an orange t-shirt. I smiled a bit. I had on a black t-shirt and black skinny jeans with some combat boots.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah, let's go." They both set off to the training ground.

When we got to the outdoor training grounds, I saw all of the men laughing at Thalia. She was wearing a black t-shirt with black skinny jeans and combat boots. What a coincidence.

"She's a girl!"

"She'll get crushed!"

"She's no match for a man!" They were making fun of her. I was getting angry. They were making fun of a girl.

"Attention!" Percy and I yelled at the same time. Everyone hurried to stand in line. All of them except Thalia. She slowly got up from her spot on the ground and against the outside wall of the inside training room and made her way to the end of the line of recruits. She walked at her own pace. All of the recruits gawked at her. I smirked. She was confident. She was independent. I looked over to Percy to see that he was smiling. He looked at me.

"Nice recruit." he muttered to me.

"Real nice." I replied.

"Well now that you _all_ have gotten into line, I'll introduce myself. My name is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. This here is Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. We'll be running through the basics this week. Today, show us what you got." Percy told them.

"Form up in pairs!" I shouted at them. There were a few trees and bushes around the perimeter of grounds. Percy walked off to see the battles, correcting them as much as possible. I was doing the same thing when I saw her. She was standing alone, back against the wall. All around her, men in pairs were battling each other, some doing a better job than others, but none of them had even bothered to pair up with her.

"No one wanted to fight you?" I guessed.

"Nope." she said. She didn't have to explain why. Everyone thought that she couldn't stand a chance. I didn't know whether or not it was true, but I did want to know what she knew. I realized that she was standing there without a sword of shield.

"Go grab a sword and shield. I'll spar with you." A few groups around us stopped when they heard me say that. I pulled out my stygian sword. No, it doesn't automatically send a person to the underworld when I hit them with it.

"No shield for you?" she asked me. I smirked.

"Won't need it." She returned the smirk.

"We'll see." She didn't make a move to the sword table.

"Don't you want a sword?" I asked her. She smirked yet again.

"I'd rather use mine than those unbalance cheap ones." I was confused. She didn't have any sword present with her. She saw my confusion and tapped her bracelet. At least, it _was _a bracelet. Right after she tapped it, it grew into a beautiful sword. I was impressed.

"Where'd you get that sword?" I asked her.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she said. I attacked her. She countered and almost sent my sword off flying. Everyone had stopped to watch now. She was a worthy opponent. Every time I attacked, she countered. Every time she attacked, I also countered. It seemed as if both of us couldn't get an upper hand. She blocked more than attacked. She was smart. An early lesson I learned about combat. If your opponent wasn't attacking, why should you repeatedly attack, leaving yourself tired? I put everything I had into my last attack, thinking that she would continue to block it with her sword. I positioned and calculated it so that it would be too much force for her to block. Instead of blocking it, she sidestepped. I struck air as she came behind me and pressed her sword up against my throat.

"I guess this means I win," she says breathing heavily. Everyone was staring at us, stunned that the only person who can be as good with a sword as Percy was just beaten. They were even more stunned when that said person who defeated me was a girl. I guess I should be more about her hurting the others than the others hurting her.

"I guess so," I say to her. She pulls back her sword and looks at me.

"Your hard to beat," she says to me.

"You too." We stand in silence just looking at each other.

"You're different," I tell her.

"I'd hope so. Not many girls join the army."

"And not many people can beat me period."

"I see why."

"And I see that you're really good with a sword." She just shrugs at my comment.

"I practice a lot."

"With what teacher?"

"No teacher."

"Really?"

"Really." I studied her. She was obviously tired, but she did a very good job hiding it. If I wasn't looking at her so closely I wouldn't have noticed. I checked the time.

"Alright everyone. It's time for lunch!" Percy shouts before I could. I just smile. Percy is like an eating machine.

"You hungry?" I ask Thalia.

"Yeah, a little."

"Then let's go eat." I take her hand and take her to the mess hall. The nymphs were already all around the room serving people. Annabeth had decided to come see Percy. They were talking at the general's table, which could honestly fit ten people, but there was only two of us. I took Thalia to the general's table to sit. People were staring at us as we passed by. No new recruit has ever sat at the general's table.

I took a seat, and Thalia took a seat next to me. Percy was eating a sandwich with a blue coke. Annabeth was also eating a sandwich, but her coke was normal colored. Thalia and I both also had a sandwich (the sandwiches here were to die for). Instead of coke we got water.

"Ummm, what's with the blue coke?" Thalia questioned us.

"There was this weirdo named Gabe who said that food could never be blue. So, my mom cooked blue food all of the time," Percy explained.

"Makes sense," she replied.

"So you're the girl who joined the army and took down ole Nico here?" Annabeth said with admiration in her voice. She had the heart and mind for a soldier, but she'd known the rules for girls. She gave up on it, but Thalia didn't.

"That's me," Thalia replied.

"Can I join the army Percy?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"No. It's too dangerous."

"You do realized that I can beat you in combat right?" Percy started to get pink.

"We'll talk about this later."

"But I want to talk about this now!"

"No Annabeth!"

"Please Percy," Annabeth put on her best puppy face. Percy couldn't resist. He smiled.

"Fine." Percy told her. Annabeth had a wide grin on her face.

"Thank you so much Percy!" she said before she kissed him. Thalia smiled when they broke apart.

"So I'll finally have a person to spare with." I faked offense.

"Are you saying that you don't like sparing with me?" She smirked.

"Too easy."

"Yeah right, rematch after lunch."

"You're on di Angelo."

"Whatever Grace." I looked up to see Percy and Annabeth looking at us weirdly.

"I thought you guys just met today," Percy said.

"We did just meet today," I told him with a 'duh' tone.

"You guys act like old best friends," Annabeth said. I roll my eyes.

"Whatever," Thalia and I say in unison. I checked the time.

"Back to training guys!" I yell at the new recruits. Annabeth, Percy, Thalia, and I move with the crowd back out to the training grounds.

Annabeth and Thalia turned out to be better than all of the men there. They fought each other with such precision, strength, and intelligence that it would put the elites to shame. After everyone had left, they were still going at it.

"It's time to go home girls!" Percy shouts at them while they're fighting. They were too engrossed in their fight that they didn't stop. I shot Percy a look and we both advance on them. Percy blocked an attack from Thalia for Annabeth. They stopped and glared at us. We just smirked. Then they looked at each other and smiled. Next thing Percy and I knew, they were attacking us. They worked well together. We laughed a bit, but we also focused on the fight. These two girls had the skills of Percy and I. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I know that I'm pretty good in combat. They were a challenge when no one else was. They also proved that they girls can be as, good if not better than guys.

We finally called it a draw when the moon came out. I gathered up my things to go back to the castle. The two generals always lived in the castle with the royal family. That meant that Percy and I got to live there. The king didn't have any children. He didn't mind that he didn't have an heir to the throne. His wife and himself didn't want a child, simple as that. I Greece and Rome, if the people didn't like the king, he was toast. They were then allowed to elect a new king. Yes, people did inherit the throne, but you have to be a good king to stay king. That's what he always told Percy and I. He treated us like sons. We were always grateful to him, seeing as how our fathers weren't here. They were gods, they had other things to do.

We did get to visit them from time to time. It's easier for me to see my dad because I could just pop in whenever. I did scare the living crap out of him the first time I just popped up in front of him though. He's gotten used to it after that. Percy on the other hand had a more difficult time seeing his father. Poseidon dwelled in the sea and in Olympus. Percy couldn't just pop in. Mainly because he doesn't have the power to do it. Poseidon does invite him to his sea palace as often as possible. Percy loves going there. He gets to see his dad and his half brother, Tyson. Tyson was a cyclops. He helps out in the forges of his dad. Tyson had welded Percy a really sweet shield the first summer he was there.

I look over to Thalia to find her walking towards the soldier's dorms. I felt a little bad that she had to live there with a lot of men who don't respect her. I looked over to Percy and Annabeth to find them thinking the same thing.

"Thalia!" I call out. She turns around.

"Yeah?"

"You want to stay in the castle?" She looked stunned.

"Am I allowed to?"

"Yeah, there's plenty of room," Annabeth said.

"Are you sure? I mean, I can just stay in the dorms."

"We're sure Thalia! Come on!" Annabeth said.

After Thalia came back with a small bag we started to head off to the castle.

"Is that all of your stuff?" I ask her. It was a small bag that looked really roomy inside.

"Yeah, why?"

"It's just, that's not much."

"I've never had much to begin with." We walked in silence.

"What did your family say when you wanted to join the army?" I asked her. I was curious.

"I don't know," she said simply.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"Because I never told them."

"How could you leave without telling them?" She shrugged.

"I ran away."

**Thanks for reading! Remember to review and tell me how I did, favorite if you really liked it, and follow to know the next time I post a chapter.**

**Stay Classy,**

**SimplyAnonymous**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you guys so much for reviewing, favoriting, and following!**

**By the way, there was a guest that told me that Thalia's sword Aegis was a shield instead of a sword in the books. I really do appreciate you trying to correct me, but I think I explained why I made it a sword instead of a shield in the last chapter. Just to clarify, I do know that she had this awesome shield that has an image of Medusa's head to scare off enemies. **

**Disclaimer: I want to point out that I'm not Rick Riordion who is a genius.**

* * *

Nico

"You ran away?" I ask her. She shrugged as if it were nothing.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to, duh."

"That's not what I meant."

"Oops."

"What was the reason?"

"For running away?"

"No for running a marathon." I said with sarcasm.

"Alright di Angelo, calm yourself."

"I am calm."

"Whatever."

"I'm serious."

"Why do you want to know?" Why did I want to know? She was interesting, different. She could handle herself. But why was I so interested in her past, I have absolutely no idea. Maybe it was because she could seem cold and mean one second and warm and friendly the other. I know that I haven't known her for long, but really wanted to learn more about her.

"I just do."

"How about I tell you some other time." I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Aww, is little Nicky mad?" she said in a baby voice.

"I'm not mad, and don't call me that ever again." I hated when people called me Nicky.

"What? Nicky?" she said giving me an innocent smile. I roll my eyes again.

"Yeah." Then she ran up in front of me screaming, "Nicky! Nicky!"

"Thalia!" I yelled as I try to catch her.

"If you want me to stop, you'll have to come catch me!" she yelled as she continued running. She began to laugh as she continued to be too far for me to catch. I started to smile and laugh too.

Just as we reached the castle, I was able to tackle her to the ground. I of course landed on top of her. We were both still laughing. When we finally finished laughing, we looked at each other, her electric blue eyes gazing into my black ones.

"Ahh, Percy, Nico, Annabeth! Back so late huh? And may I ask who this is Nico?" the king's voice boomed. Thalia and I both hastily got up, blushing. The king chuckled at us.

"This is Thalia," I tell him.

"Well, Thalia, are you that young lady who joined the army?" he asked her.

"Yes your majesty."

"No need to call me that! Just call Fred! I insist!" He'd said the same thing to us the first time we met.

"Come in! Come in! I take it that Nico here has invited you to stay here at the castle?"

"Yes, sir,"

"Well there is certainly plenty of room here! Welcome my dear!" he said as he ushered us inside.

The castle was large. It had many empty bedrooms. It held the throne room and the strategy room for the upcoming war. The bricks were gray. Greece's flag hung down against the wall in several places. Percy and Annabeth's room was on the third floor, while mine was on the fifth. My room had the colors black, black, and black in it. And did I mention I had black in my room? Kidding, but it was just about the only color in my room.

The king showed Thalia to her room personally, he was always hospitable and kind to everyone he met. That was a quality that I had always admired.

"I trust that you'll meet us at dinner in an hour?" he asked Thalia.

"Yes."

"Great!" he said as he strolled off. Before he left, he gave me a knowing smile. I wonder what that's about.

Dinner came around. I headed down to the dining room. The dining area itself was used for parties. It had several small round tables, usually covered in cloth, the color depended on what we were celebrating. The dining room was used for the royal family and their guests. The king had always told Percy, Annabeth, and I that we were counted as family.

When I got down, Percy, Annabeth, the king, and the queen were all seated talking and laughing. I took my seat across from Percy. They all looked up.

"Where's Thalia?" the king asked me. I shrugged

"I'm not sure." After I said that, Thalia came down.

"Ahhh, Thalia!" the king said to her. She took the seat next to me. We ate our food, making small talk.

"So how good is Thalia and Annabeth at combat boys?" the king asked us.

"Let's just say that they would put the elites to shame," Percy said. The king and queen just smiled.

"Well in that case, we should've let women join the army long ago."

"Thalia even beat Nico here," Percy said.

"Is that so?" He turned to Thalia. She nodded, blushing.

"You have a gift young girl. Are you the daughter of Ares or Athena?" It never occurred to me that she might've been a demigod. Most would say their godly parent's name when they introduced themselves. I guess I just assumed she was mortal.

"No, I'm not," she answered.

"Well are you a demigod?"

"Daughter of Zeus." she replied. Everyone started choking on their food. A child of the Big Three was rare.

"Daughter of Zeus?" the queen said. Thalia nodded, blushing a little from all of the attention she was getting.

"How did we not know of this before?" the king asked.

"I was stuck in a house all day, not being able to do anything I wanted," she said with bitterness and resentment.

"What do you mean?" he asked her. She started to explain her story. When she was finished, I started to hate her mother and step sister too. They kept here locked up in a house, treating her like she was their slave.

I followed her up to her room, seeing as how her room was right across from mine, after dinner.

"So that's why you ran away."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"You had to go through all of that for years."

"It's no big deal." I looked at her.

"The war is coming." I tell her.

"I know."

"Don't get hurt."

"You're acting as if I don't know how to use a sword."

"Thalia, I'm being serious! Please, just stay safe."

"Nico, you know I'll be right next to you fighting."

"I know."

"If anything, you're the one who needs to be careful, Death Breath."

"Whatever Pinecone face."

"Pinecone face?"

"Yeah, you know how you ran into a pinecone tree right after we left the mess hall today?"

"Whatever di Angelo."

"Night Grace."

"Night."

* * *

The rest of the week went by like a blur. This week though, some high ranking military officers were teaching the recruits. Percy and I had to plan for the upcoming war. This war was different. The other side had demigods that left Greece and Rome. They decided that they would be better off without the gods. Though Greece and Rome was large, they had two lands called America and Great Britain. They were both very, _very _large. A little more than half of the demigods went to join their cause.

You see, many demigods have resentment towards the gods. They tend to use demigods as pawns. They also do some things that are very questionable, but they seem to be coming from a good place and meaning well, right? I know that all of the gods have some sort of love for all of their children. Some people don't understand it. But how could I blame them? The gods aren't exactly warm now are they? They did things that you couldn't understand. They did things for their best interest. I'll be the first to admit that they're selfish, but they do care about their children. Some more than others.

Planning for a war is very hard. Especially when the other side has all of the monsters on their side, a little more than half of the demigods, and more in numbers when it came to the mortals. No one had ever seen them in battle before. The Romans and Greeks plan together. Cooperation is everything.

"Can I come, please!" Thalia asked me. I looked at her. No women has ever been before. How would they feel? The king seemed to like her just fine, but what if the others didn't? What am I thinking? This is Thalia. The girl that didn't or ever will care what people thought of her. So why not? Why not bring her in? I know for a fact that Percy would let Annabeth come. Aside from the fact that Annabeth can make him agree to just about anything, Annabeth is the best strategist in the land. People know that just by watching her play chess. She's also a daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategy. She had good reason to be there.

So how could it hurt if Thalia came along too? She had a great mind for war, and the skills worthy of Ares.

"Sure," I told her after hearing her ask me over and over and over again.

"Thank you so much Nico!"

"Yeah, whatever." I said as I started walking towards the strategy room. I could barely hear her footsteps right behind me.

I opened the door to see that for once, I wasn't the last one there. Jason, Frank, and Percy weren't there yet. I took a seat and Thalia sat next to me. Everyone was staring at her. She just sat there with her chin in her hands with a bored expression on her face. Percy, Annabeth, Jason, and Frank walked in.

"Not another girl! One was bad enough!" Octavian yelled. This guy really got on my nerves. He actually got on everyone's nerves.

"These two young women are amazing in combat, and I would like their input on our strategy plans," the king said. Octavian shut his mouth.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jason staring at Thalia. When I turned to him, he stood up completely shocked. I was confused.

"Thalia?" he yelled.

"Jason?" Thalia yelled back in the same shocked tone. Then he came and hugged her. It was a brotherly hug. I was even more confused.

"What are you doing her?" he asked her.

"I joined the army."

"Your that girl who did that?"

"Duh," she said as she ruffled his hair. He smiled.

"Oh and by the way, mom lied. I'm a demigod," she told him.

"Let me guess, Zues?"

"How did you know?"

"If you were Roman then you would be in Rome right now. Plus, mom had an infatuation with Zues/Jupiter."

"Whatever." He smirked.

They both took a seat and the meeting began.

"So I say that we should make a large arrow formation and penetrate the large crowd while staying tight together," one of the top strategist said. I looked around, seeing many people not happy with the plan. I wasn't either. Before anybody could say anything, Thalia interjected.

"That won't work."

"Why not, insolent little girl?" he spat.

"Because the other side has way too many soldiers for us to do that."

"Well than what do you expect us to do, huh?" Before Thalia could come up with a plan, Annabeth jumped in.

"We could attack from the front, and then we could come from behind as well," she suggested. Everyone seemed to approve of the new plan.

"That sounds like a brilliant idea!" the king said. Everyone murmured in agreement. The rest of the day went on with us planning more things. Annabeth excelled at this. The king even made her head strategist at the end of the day.

We knew for certain that the attack from the opposition would come on Monday, forty miles from the border. The leader would be an old good friend of Percy and Annabeth's, Luke Castellan. We were well prepared for it, but I was worried about Thalia. What would happen to her?

We had decided on Annabeth's plan to ambush them from behind. Group B would camp a few miles away from the battle field. When the time came, we would come charging and attack from behind. Percy and Annabeth were going to lead the attack from up front, Percy must be worried to death about Annabeth, and Thalia and I would lead the attack from behind. Let's just say, I was as worried for Thalia as Percy was for Annabeth.

* * *

**Thank you guys so much for reading! Please remember to review to tell me how I did, favorite if you really liked it, and follow to know when I post a new chapter.**

**Stay Classy,**

**SimplyAnonymous**


	3. Chapter 3

**I hate writer's block. This chapter wouldv'e been a lot longer.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited!**

* * *

Nico

I walk out of my tent to find Thalia.

"Nervous?" she asks me.

"I've been in battle a lot of times. Why would I be nervous now?" She just shrugged.

"Just asking." We had five minutes until we had to start walking to the place where the battle would be. Percy and Annabeth were already leading the battle. I just hoped that they last long enough for us to come.

I walk up to Thalia and pull off her helmet.

"Don't get hurt," I whisper to her before kissing her forehead. She smiles.

"I promise that I'll try."

"Well that doesn't exactly put my thoughts to rest now does it?"

"Nico, if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that you can never guarantee something."

"I know," was my reply to her. I knew that I couldn't have her promise her safety. I knew that something wrong could happen. But that didn't stop my mind from going through all of the different things that could happen to her. But I had a battle to fight and win. I trusted Thalia with my life, and I knew that she felt the same. So going into a battle with her couldn't be so bad, could it?

Thalia

Marching into battle was nerve wracking. I've never been in battle before. How would I do? What would happen? I knew that Annabeth would've thought the same thoughts when she was marching into battle. She could handle it. The question was, could I? I'm not one to put faith in my own abilities, so you could imagine all of the different things going through my head. But my mind cleared when I saw the battle. I looked at Nico and charged.

The combat was a lot easier than I had thought it would be. It was a lot different than training. Sure training was helpful, but here, you fight to kill. They were a lot more aggressive. But I had no problem. I was always at Nico's side, hacking and slashing soldiers and monsters. The monsters were a lot more trickier, but we still managed.

Nico and I stood, back to back, attacking the enemies. Annabeth's plan had worked perfectly. Annabeth and Percy were in the front, while Nico and I lead the back. The enemy had almost fled when we heard the minotaur.

It was very _very _large. The minotaur had hair everywhere, it had a large head, two large horns coming out of the top of its head, and had large eyes that were filled with rage. It truly looked like it was half man half bull. It pawed the ground with its bull hooves and charged straight toward us.

We acted fast. We quickly separated to avoid being hit. The minotaur barreled straight into some other people. It turned around and started to charge again, hesitating, as if to wonder who it should kill first. I got an idea.

"Hey ugly!" I said to get it's attention.

"How dumb can you be to miss both of us?" That seemed to get its attention. It roared in anger and started to charge towards me. I could only hope Nico knew what I was doing.

Luckily, he did know what to do, and he jumped on its back and dug his Stygian sword into the minotaur. The beast roared and lashed out at me in a last attempt to hurt me. I deflected the it with my shield, but I was thrown back a couple of meters. The minotaur exploded into dust.

Nico ran to me, killing a few people on the way. By the time he got me, I was already on my feet. I used the wind to help soften the fall.

"Are you alright?" he shouted over the clang of metal against metal, grunts, and screams.

"I'm fine Nico!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure!" I said as we resumed our fighting.

Somehow, Nico and I got a little separated in the fight. I could still easily see him, but I wasn't as close to him as I was. I was trying to get back to him when a guy with blond hair, icy blue eyes, and an ugly scar on his face started attacking me. I dodged, blocked, and attacked. He was clearly better than most of the other people that I had fought. He stopped attacking for a minute and I instantly recognized him. I saw that he also had a look of recognition on his face.

"Thalia?" he said. I lashed out at him. He blocked it.

"Thalia! It's me!"

"How could you Luke?" I shouted.

"How could I what?"

"How could you become a traitor?" I've known Luke since I was little. We used to be best friends until my house had burned down.

"The gods are useless. All they use us demigods for is to run their errands that they're too lazy to do themselves! They're cowards that'll do anything to keep power!"

"The gods are better than you think Luke!"

"Better than I think? If I'm not mistaken, Zeus, your father, left you with your horrible mother! How could you still defend him after that?"

"He came to visit! He tried to see me!"

"And that's your justification? Look at what they've done to us! You of all people should know that! Hades tried killing you, Hera hates you, the list goes on and on. And your father is the worst of them!" I hesitated. A lot of the things he said did make sense. But I know for a fact that the gods care. I know that Annabeth's mother loves all of her children, Hades tries to see Nico as much as he could, Poseidon invites Percy to come to his underwater palace as much as he can, Zeus tried to come and visit me, et cetera. I also knew for a fact that Hermes, Luke's dad, loved him very much, but Luke couldn't see that. Luke could only see the (many) bad things that the gods did. But I knew that their intentions were good. Even if at times they seem to not care (which at time they didn't).

"Join me!" Luke said.

"No!"

"The gods will crumble Thalia! We will burn Olympus to the ground!" The offer was to tempting.

"Tempting, but I think I'll pass."

"Please Thalia," he said pleadingly, "Please come with me." I fought back tears.

"I'm sorry Luke. I can't come with you," I said, I looked up and saw Nico staring at us. The enemy was fleeing.

"Thalia, the gods are a waste. Please," he said again, desperate to get me to come with him. But I remembered all of the kindness that the gods have shown, I thought of Percy and Annabeth, and most of all, I thought of Nico.

"I'm really sorry Luke," I told him. He looked sad and hurt as he fled with his army.

* * *

We returned to the palace to have a huge feast in our honor. The king and queen were nice and held small talk. We were all stuffed by the time we headed back to our rooms.

"Nice job out there Thals," Nico said just before I opened the door to my room.

"Thanks, you too Nico."

"Just don't put yourself in danger like you did with the minotaur," he said smiling. I smirked.

"I'm not making any promises." We laughed a little at my comment.

"What were you and Luke talking about?" he asked me. I thought about it for a second. I could tell him, right? He was my best friend. I could trust him with my life. So surely I could trust him with this.

"I've known Luke for a long time. He used to be my best friend."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"So what happened?"

"I accidentally set my house on fire." He laughed at that.

"May I ask you how you set your house on fire?"

"I didn't exactly control my temper." He laughed some more.

"Anyways, I hadn't seen him until today."

"So what happened?" I proceeded to tell him about our conversation earlier.

"So he wanted you to join him?" he said with clenched teeth.

"Yeah."

"So what made you say no?"

"I remembered all of the kindness that the gods have shown. I also remembered Percy and Annabeth and everyone that I've met here. And I thought about you." I said the last part quietly, but Nico still heard it.

"I'm glad that you stayed Thals." He kissed me forehead.

"Goodnight," he said as he walked into his room.

"Goodnight." I walked into my room and laid in my bed, thinking about how Nico di Angelo kissed me on my forehead twice in one day.

Nico

I wake up the next morning to find that Thalia was already eating breakfast.

"Hey," I say to her as I start to eat my own breakfast.

"Hey," she lazily replied to me. Then I got an idea.

"The officers are teaching the training classes today. Do you want to ditch and hang with me today?" I ask her. Her face brightens up.

"Of course!" I smile.

"Great! Meet me at the door at ten?"

"Sure," she said as she headed up to her room to get ready.

I finished my breakfast and headed up to my room to get ready as well. I put on a black v-neck, black skinny jeans, and black converse. I looked at the clock to see that it was nine forty five. I decided to go ahead and go down and just wait for her.

When she came down, she was wearing a black Green Day t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and black converse. I grinned.

"You ready?" I ask her. She smiled.

"Yep." I open the door and we walked outside together.

* * *

**So I hope you guys liked this chapter even if it's a bit short. Please remember to review to tell me how I did, whether or not you liked it, things like that. Favorite if you really liked it and please follow to know when I post a new chapter.**

**-SimplyAnonymous182**


	4. Chapter 4

Nico

I decided to take Thalia to the park first. We passed by a lot of people on our way there. Some girls even glared at Thalia as we passed by. She, of course, ignored them all.

When we got there, we decided to sit on a bench looking at the pond.

"How did you become general?" she asked me out of nowhere.

"A monster attacked me at the market one day when I was thirteen. Percy was there to see me pulverize the monster into oblivion. Then Percy learned that both my mother and sister had died in a fire that took out my entire town. He took me in to go meet the king. Some years later, they were looking for two new generals. The king recommended us and here we are today."

"So how did you get so good?"

"Practice."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much."

"No one ever taught you?"

"Well, the king did provide Percy and I some instructors, obviously." She was silent for a bit.

"So how did _you_ get so good?" I asked her, curious.

"Practice."

"Really?"

"Yep," she said, popping the 'p'.

"What do you think your mother and half sister said when they saw that you were gone?" She laughed before answering.

"They were probably furious. I can't imagine them having to do their own chores for once." I chuckled at that. From what Thalia's told me, they seem to be total snobs.

"If you hated it there so much, why did you stay?"

"I had to wait until I had a decent plan. I also felt kind of bad for my mother. From what my father told me, she used to be nice and caring. But now all she cares about is herself and her daughter."

"But you're her daughter too."

"I wish I wasn't."

"If you weren't, then you would've never been born."

"I guess you're right."

"I know." I said. She shoved me a little. I shoved her back gently. She got a wicked smile and shoved me hard off the bench. I immediately jumped back up and wrestled her to the ground. We were rolling around trying to get the upper hand. We were laughing as we rolled dangerously close to the pond. We narrowly avoided falling into it.

I finally pinned her to the ground underneath us. We were both breathing heavily. I was hovering over her, smiling. She was also smiling and flipped us over. She was now on top of me. We sat there for a minute, looking at each other.

"Inconsiderate kids!" an older person yelled at us. We quickly got up and started walking somewhere else.

"Let's go get ice cream!" I screamed as we passed by the ice cream shop.

"Your such a child!" she told me as I draged her to the door of the ice cream shop. We walked up to the lady at the counter.

"Hi, what can I get you two?"

"Can I get one scoop of rocky rode and one of vanilla?" I tell her.

"Sure. And you?" she asked Thalia.

"The same," she replies.

"Awwwwwww. How cute! You two even get the same ice cream!" she squealed. I quickly realized that she thought that Thalia and I were a couple.

"Oh! We're not a couple," Thalia states. I can't help but to be a little disappointed.

"Oh please! You can't fool me! You dress similarly, you came in here holding hands," she said referring to how I dragged her in here by her hand, "and you guys even ordered the same thing! If you're not a couple now, then you'll soon be," she said as she handed us our ice cream. Thalia and I just blushed as I paid for our ice cream before Thalia could.

"Why didn't you let me pay?" she whined as we sat down on another bench.

"Because, what kind of gentleman would I be if I let you pay?" I said jokingly.

"One that lets me pay," she mumbled. I chuckled at her comment.

"This is really good ice cream," I tell her between spoonfuls of ice cream. She just laughs at me.

"What?" I asked her.

"You're such a kid!" she told me for the second time.

"You know you love me!" I tell her.

"Yeah right!" she said while laughing.

"Nice to know you care Thals!" I say, pretending to be hurt.

"Awww, is little Nicky sad now?" she said in her baby voice.

"Do you want me to tackle you to the ground again?" I ask her. She just smirked.

"I could totally take you!"

"Yeah right! Don't you remember how I pinned you down?" She turned a little red at that. I smirked.

"Is little Thalia getting embarrassed about getting her butt whooped?"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!" I say in a sing song voice. That's when Thalia decided to tackle me to the ground.

After another intense wrestling match with Thalia, I decided to take her to eat.

"What do you want to eat?" I ask her.

"How do you feel about pizza?"

"I think 'Why are we still here let's go!'" I say, taking her arm and running to the amazing pizza shop by the beach, which wasn't very far from the park.

We entered the pizza shop out of breath from running the whole way there. The pizza shop was buzzing with people sitting at the circular red tables. The booths were also red. We chose a booth by a window and sat, waiting for someone to take our order.

"Do you know what you want to eat?" I ask her.

"A large meat lovers pizza!" I smile at her suggestion.

"Or course!" A while later, a waitress came to take our order. We placed it, Thalia getting a Dr. Pepper, me getting Coke, and of course ordering one large meat lovers pizza.

"So how do you like this place so far?" I ask her as we were waiting for our food.

"I love it here! It's amazing." We sat in a comfortable silence for a while until our food came.

"How is it that you know where all of the amazing places for food are? Oh wait, don't answer that," she said to me after taking her first bite of the pizza.

After we left the pizza restaurant, I took Thalia down to the beach. We sat around, talking, until the sunset.

"This sunset is amazing Nico, thanks."

"No problem." I looked over to Thalia, who looked even more breathtaking than the sun set. The light was hitting her perfectly. She looked gorgeous. So this is where I curse my impulsiveness. I leaned over and kissed her. She pulled away quickly, her eyes wide in surprise.

"I-I'm so-" I was cut off by her kissing me. I was so surprised and happy at the same time. When air became neccessary, we pulled away. She was blushing a deep red.

"Miss Thalia!" a messenger yelled. He looked out of breath from running.

"I'm sorry to interupt, but Sir Luke has come back!"

"What?" she yelled in surprise. She got up and ran. So that's how Thalia Grace left me on the beach for some other guy.

Thalia

I was dashing at top speed to go see Luke. I momentarily forgot that Nico was still there. All I knew was that Luke, my best friend, has come back. I was running at top speed to the castle, where I knew he would most likely be in. I burst through the door, out of breath. I spotted Luke immediately and hugged him tightly.

"Luke! I knew that you would come back!" I yelled as I held him tightly.

"Thalia, I thought about what you said, and I found myself agreeing with you." Now I know what your thinking, 'But Thalia, he's just tricking you.' I looked him in the eyes and saw the sincerity. I had a feeling the Hermes had something to do with this. I let him go after a while of holding him tightly.

"Thalia, where is Nico?" the king asked me. Just then, I heard the door slam, and Nico went up to his room. My eyes widen. I completely left Nico on the beach after we kissed. I feel horrible now. I ran up to his room and pounded on his door.

"Nico!" No answer.

"Nico!" Still no answer.

"I'm so sorry! I don't know why I left you but I did! I'm sorry!" I tried to explain myself, but still, there was no answer at the door. He didn't make a sound. So I resigned to my room, thinking about how much of an awful person I was.

The next morning, my eyes were bloodshot from the lack of sleep I got. I lazily got up and dressed for the day. I went downstairs to find that Nico also had bloodshot eyes. He didn't even acknowledge me when I set across from him. I missed when he would greet me tiredly. I missed when we talked. I missed _us. _But I just had to ruin it by running to Luke when he came back. How could I be so stupid?

Weeks passed, Nico still wouldn't talk to me. He would make no indication that he even noticed my presence. So I too became silent. I wouldn't talk much, I wouldn't eat as much, I wouldn't do anything but think about what I had did. Nico haunted my nights, my dreams.

* * *

I was informed of another battle that was going to take place. At the battle meeting, Annabeth provided another battle plan, using Luke as a source of information about the enemy. I sat through it and left the second it was over. The battle was to be led by Percy and Jason. Nico, Frank, Annabeth and I would be at the front of the battle as well.

The battle day came very soon. I knew that I would no longer have Nico to watch my back for me. That thought scared me a little. With Nico, I knew that someone had my back. I would just be out there, on my own. Luke was also fighting in this battle, but I couldn't count on him to watch my back the same way Nico did.

The battle was huge. I was striking down enemies as fast as I could. I would occasionally glance at Nico who had no problem whatsoever. I was doing pretty well. The enemy had brought in archers after they began to lose. There were many monsters that had been in the fight as well.

They were being led by someone new. Someone I didn't recognize. He seemed to be a skilled fighter and leader, though.

I was being surrounded by enemies on all sides. I was attacking and blocking, trying to get out of the circle they had formed around me. Then, I saw Nico. He was running towards me. He was trying to break through the circle, but the monsters kept coming. I had just killed another monster when I felt a sharp pain in my side. I looked down and found an arrow buried in my side. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Nico running to my side.

* * *

The first thing I saw when I woke up was Nico. He was staring at me. When he saw that I had woken up, he asked me, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah," I replied. My side was a little sore, but I definitely felt fine. They probably fed me ambrosia or nectar.

"That's good," he said. We sat in silence before I started to drift off again. When I woke up, he wasn't there.

When they finally let me out of the infirmary, I went straight to the castle. I grabbed my stuff and went to the training grounds. The training day wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I didn't know what I expected from Nico. He still didn't speak a word to me though.

During dinner, the king made an announcement.

"We are going to hold a ball for Nico to find a wife!" he said cheerfully. I nearly choked on my food. Nico was going to have to find a wife? There was talk of planning for the ball for the rest of dinner. Nico, however, was silent through the whole thing. When we finished dinner, I rushed up to my room for another sleepless night.


End file.
